Yu,196210 June 15 was born in Xiagang Street, Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province. Founder of New Oriental Education Group, an expert in English teaching and management. He is also an excellent speaker. The following is what I shared. Let's have a look. Yu's inspirational story:

Yu experienced two major successes and two major failures in his life. His success lies firstly in his being honored as the godfather of studying in China, and secondly in his English teaching, which made him a fortune of 4 billion pounds. However, if these successes are based on three consecutive years of entrance examinations and three rejections from studying in the United States, the story will be dramatic.

Three-year college entrance examination

Among entrepreneurs in China, Yu was deeply impressed by Ma Yun of Alibaba: both of them were top candidates in the college entrance examination for three consecutive years, which made Yu feel like appreciate each other.

This story can be traced back to 30 years ago. I didn't expect that he would become the godfather in the future. At that time, his ideal was only to be admitted to Jiangyin Normal College in his hometown, and he could farm without raising pigs. But in 1978, when he took the college entrance examination for the first time, he realized that life is often full of despair: 33 points in English; The next year, I took the exam again and got 55 points in English, but I still failed.

I don't know why Ma Yun persisted in the third year. Anyway, he insisted on the third year because he couldn't afford to lose money and insisted on having a confession to himself. This is the first time that I found hope in despair. 1980, Yu took the college entrance examination for the third time, and finally gave himself a confession and was admitted to the English Department of Peking University.

Peking University is magnificent.

In Peking University, there are only three children from rural areas in Yu's class. At that time, his looks and English were not amazing. He struggled in Peking University for five years, and the extra year was "dedicated" to tuberculosis. During his recovery, Yu read 600 famous books, which he said was his greatest achievement besides learning English at Peking University.

1985 When I graduated, it was the time when public English in Peking University developed rapidly and English teachers were in short supply. Yu, who likes the quiet life of Peking University, dares to "blend in" with young teachers and attend eight classes a week, which has opened the curtain of his educational career.

When Peking University gave him an 8-square-meter basement, "Fenqing" Yu liked reading Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. The sewer pipe of the whole building just passed through his room, and the 24-hour sound of running water reached his ears. I listen to it like a beautiful waterfall, with no imaginary content. Later, Peking University transferred him from an "underground worker" to the ground and arranged a dormitory on the 0/6th floor of Peking University/KLOC. I was so grateful for the sunshine on the ground that I decided to dedicate my life to Peking University.

When I bent down for the house, my classmates and friends around him smelled the smell of dollars after the opening of the country, and tried to March in a tasteful direction. "After a while, I found that all my friends were gone. Finally, I received their postcards overseas, only to know that they had landed on the North American continent."

Love time

Behind every successful man, there is a great woman. Another meaning of this sentence is: if a man wants to succeed, there must be a woman behind him. I am a practitioner and a successful person of this kind of counter-push.

Ms Yu is a "flower-class" alumnus in Peking University. When I was wandering around the campus, I met her and fell in love at first sight. Then she fought again and again, and 600 famous books turned into love poems, such as surging rivers, and finally got rid of her.

Mrs. Yu was born in a military family, and Yu's father-in-law didn't like him at first. The old man has been a soldier all his life and is used to being a powerful person. On the contrary, the mother-in-law is pleasing to the eye when she sees her son-in-law wearing glasses, and she usually takes good care of it. Before marriage, every time I went to my parents-in-law's house, my wife would give her a face-to-face sermon. After she went, she swept the floor, wiped the table, made a fire and cooked, and made unremitting efforts to get emotional points.

My father-in-law finally agreed, starting with a small matter. My parents-in-law have no heating in winter, and there is a lot of honeycomb coal to be stored in winter, so a coal pool should be built behind the house. I built the coal pool seriously and quietly, and then put the briquettes neatly in it, while he was in complete darkness. From then on, my father-in-law felt that I was not afraid of dirt and suffering, and was a man who did great things. From then on, he was not allowed to do housework. As soon as he got home, he asked Yu to go into his room to study.

My father-in-law kept the coal pool built by Yu for many years, and everyone said, "This coal pool was built by my fourth uncle. He is the principal of New Oriental School. " Today, Yu often talks about love and gratitude in these past events at the student ceremony in New Oriental.

Failure to study abroad

When Yu's flower of love is brilliant, more and more students successfully landed in North America. For myself, the temptation to go abroad has been lost to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for a long time. However, at this time he is already a married man. Besides, Mrs. Yu thinks she doesn't want to go abroad.

"The greatest ability of a woman after marriage is that she can make a man progress, or she can fail without progress." He concluded after so many years.

From 1988, I changed from "watching the Three Kingdoms while drinking" to spelling TOEFL and GRE at night, and finally both TOEFL and GRE passed. Although the score is not very high, but after all, pry open a door to go abroad.

At first, Yu thought he could apply for a full scholarship from at least one or two schools. "But American professors are sharp-eyed and can see at a glance that I am a careless bag, and even the University of Hawaii on the Pacific island is dismissive of me." Yu Hongmin laughed at himself.

Finally, several American universities issued admission notices, but there were no scholarships. The minimum tuition fee for an American university is about $20,000 a year, which is equivalent to RMB 65,438+RMB 2,000 that year. Yu's monthly salary at Peking University is 180 yuan. In theory, the tuition fee for studying in the United States for four years is the salary for the remaining 222 years.

After struggling for three years, Yu's dream of studying abroad was shattered again in despair.

Resign and go to sea

Karl Marx famously said, "The first repetition of history is a tragedy, and the second repetition is a farce." I dreamed of studying abroad three times and was forced to make a living.

At this time, the tide of China going abroad was magnificent, and "a million heroes crossed the ocean". Under the mighty trend, various TOEFL and GRE training courses have sprung up on the streets of Beijing, including inside and outside Peking University.

I don't want to compete with his predecessors for work. He has to look for food outside school. As a result, it was unfairly recorded as an administrative demerit by Peking University because it affected the enrollment of training courses in the school. Young intellectuals have fresh skin, but I am completely determined to resign from Peking University.

After leaving Peking University, I also went through the process of "relying on others first, then starting my own business" that all entrepreneurs must go through. The difference is that the turbulent life of living without a fixed place has reversed Yu's family status, and "henpecked" has become "the husband sings with the woman". In order to prepare lessons, Yu memorized two Longman modern English-Chinese dictionaries. Teacher Yu was considerate and helped to copy the manuscript of preparing lessons under the lamp, which led to Yu's famous GRE vocabulary selection-GRE Jianghu Collection.

1993 was founded in New Oriental School. On a cold winter night, I was carrying a paste bucket, waiting for a telephone pole to wind and post advertisements in the dark. During the day, teacher Yu sat by the phone, waiting for the students to sign up.

Many years later, Xu Xiaoping, a veteran entrepreneur of New Oriental, commented: "I drew the most wonderful chapter in the history of international students' sports in China. "

Never give up.

Many years later, New Oriental has been listed, and Yu has also become the godfather of studying abroad and the man of the hour in China's rich list. However, Yu's image remains the same in the minds of colleagues and students in New Oriental.

"Who is the most earthy in the world? Lao Yu-wearing a New Oriental T-shirt with the words "Looking for hope in despair, life will eventually be brilliant" on the back to play golf; "I can't use a credit card and take a sack of money on vacation"; "What does Lao Yu like best? Telephone poles! Lao Yu likes every telephone pole in Zhongguancun. "

Yu Hongmin himself said: "There are two kinds of people, one has a past and the other has no past." Today, students who enter the New Oriental are learning English, and at the same time, they are also learning and spreading the past events with other New Oriental teachers and schoolmates. These past events are dull, ups and downs, or touching, but they are all stories about truth and struggle, about despair and hope in life, and about never giving up in life.

"I sincerely hope that everyone can read a little bit of pain, struggle, unyielding, tenacious and brilliant from these stories; I also sincerely hope that everyone can read happiness from pain, hope from despair, light from darkness and direction from fog. " Yu explained the motto of New Oriental: Look for hope in despair, and life will eventually be brilliant! Yu believes that this is the spiritual strength of New Oriental.

It is this spirit that changed Yu's own destiny.